Friends

Friendship should be something sacred. Or at least, real friendship should be. Do you know when you got a real friend? When you disagree with him (or her) about something. While you all have the same opinions and likes it’s rather easy to be friends. Now, when there’s some discordance, that’s when things get a little tricky.

Sometimes you bond with your friend over some things you both love: this or that kind of music, this or that team, this or that kind of movie, the list goes on. However, it’s impossible to agree on everything all the time, and that’s when friendships are tested.

And no matter what the disagreement is, TRUE friendships always triumphs.

I’m not going to be hypocritical and say that it is easy to strongly disagree with a good friend. It is not. It is actually rather difficult. But when both accept differences, this is when friendships get stronger.

Sometimes it’s rather shocking. You’re talking with this great friend, a person with whom you have almost everything in common and suddenly – in a subject you think the position is pretty obvious for anyone, let alone your great friend – he (or she) has a different opinion. Of course, if it’s something trivial like food, music or movies, you might be a little surprised, but you move on. However, when the subject is more controversial – capital punishment, politics in general, gay marriage, drugs, you name it – your friendship might be at stake. But it shouldn’t.

Because being able to accept a different opinion from your friend (as absurd as it seems to you) is what strengthens an already great friendship. Real friends are above any kind of difference.

I’m not a historian, therefore I’m pretty sure there are more examples of that throughout history that I don’t know, but I just read recently that Benjamin Franklin was friends with an English printer called William Strahan. They bonded over the letters they exchanged even before they meet in person. When the revolution broke off, Franklin wrote, but did not send him, a letter saying that from that moment on they were enemies. Of course, it was all within the typical Franklin humor, but the point is: they actually remained friends during the war, being in opposite sides. And it was a real war, where a lot of people died, were wounded and lost their loved ones. That’s what true friendships are all about. It can survive even when friends’ ideals are antagonistic and even lead to a war.